Music Review // Total Fucking Darkness "Take It Easy"

 

As "Take It Easy" begins with some beats and the feeling of Depeche Mode, I know this isn't going to be The Eagles.   There is a slow and gradual build to this sound, as it can get heavier with the beats and synths, to the point of techno as the lyrics say "Take it easy".   Synth tones can come through like Pole Position and at times Total Fucking Darkness even reminds me of the early era Nine Inch Nails, though the vocals within this song are largely spoken and if it got closer to that older NIN I'd expect some screaming (which there isn't)

Lyrically this song feels like different quotes or snippets put together to make one big quote, but it actually all comes together and works.   Lines like "Kill all hippies in their beds / That is what the father said" can be thought of as something that is not meant to be taken as a direct order but rather as something you don't want to do because you want to rebel by not listening to the father.   There is also a line that says "I am the son and heir / Of a sickness that is criminally vulgar" and it's nice that both the father and son bases are covered in this song.

Sometimes the lyrics are as lonely as "No one wants to see me anymore" but then there is also lines like "Take a picture of your food" which can be a commentary on social media and why we need the feel to document every little thing we do in that way rather than just living life.  But the lines I like the most say "Fly piggies fly".  Something that isn't supposed to happen will only happen when pigs fly and so since they are flying this means that we're witnessing these highly unlikely things happening, even though Total Fucking Darkness made this point in much fewer words.

Total Fucking Darkness have created a song here which is just weird enough that it could go into that electronic / EDM crowd and be accepted, but also there is a group of people (like me) who listened to the radio growing up in the era of modern rock and alternative and would very much also put this into a playlist.  It's that way where you could put this on a soundtrack to a film like "Blade", but also a film like "Go" and that's how it crosses genres to where it feels like it just fits everywhere and nowhere at the same time.